Canada has joined the Patent Law Treaty (PLT), designed to streamline formal procedures for national and regional patent applications and patents. WIPO received Canada’s instrument of ratification of the Patent Law Treaty on July 30, 2019. The PLT will enter into force for Canada on October 30, 2019. Canada’s ratification brings the number of PLT contracting parties to 42.
The ratification to the PLT follows Canada’s accession to three key trademark-related WIPO treaties in June, which underlines Canada’s strong commitment to multilateral engagement with WIPO.
About the Patent Law Treaty
The PLT harmonizes and streamlines formal procedures with respect to national and regional patent applications and patents. It brings the national/regional procedural requirements closer to those applied to international applications under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), where appropriate.
Consequently, the PLT facilitates filing and processing of patent applications by the users of the patent system and increases the efficiency of the operation of patent offices.
Most significantly, the PLT harmonizes the filing date requirements for national/regional patent applications, and provides, under certain conditions, mechanisms to avoid the unintentional loss of rights because of failure to comply with time limits, among others.
[Source: WIPO]
The Patent Law Treaty is a multilateral treaty that was drafted with the objective to simplify and harmonize formal procedures that are set by national and regional patent offices. The Treaty proposes changes with respect to the filing dates, fees, and the functionality of patent offices, among several other changes.